Configuring MAC Address Tables

• Information About MAC Addresses, on page 1

• Configuring MAC Addresses, on page 1
• Configuring MAC Move Loop Detection, on page 4
• Verifying the MAC Address Configuration, on page 5

Information About MAC Addresses

To switch frames between LAN ports, the switch maintains an address table. When the switch receives a
frame, it associates the media access control (MAC) address of the sending network device with the LAN
port on which it was received.
The switch dynamically builds the address table by using the MAC source address of the frames received.
When the switch receives a frame for a MAC destination address not listed in its address table, it floods the
frame to all LAN ports of the same VLAN except the port that received the frame. When the destination
station replies, the switch adds its relevant MAC source address and port ID to the address table. The switch
then forwards subsequent frames to a single LAN port without flooding all LAN ports.
You can also enter a MAC address, which is termed a static MAC address, into the table. These static MAC
entries are retained across a reboot of the switch.
You cannot enter a multicast address as a statically configured MAC address, both for IP multicast and non-IP
multicast MAC addresses. This is not supported by the N3548 platform.
The address table can store a number of unicast address entries without flooding any frames. The switch uses
an aging mechanism, defined by a configurable aging timer, so if an address remains inactive for a specified
number of seconds, it is removed from the address table.

Configuring MAC Addresses

Configuring Static MAC Addresses
You can configure static MAC addresses for the switch. These addresses can be configured in interface
configuration mode or in VLAN configuration mode.

Configuring MAC Address Tables

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 Configuring MAC Address Tables
Disabling MAC Address Learning on Layer 2 Interfaces

SUMMARY STEPS
1. switch# configure terminal
2. switch(config) # mac address-table static mac_address vlan vlan-id {drop | interface {type slot/port}
| port-channel number}
3. (Optional) switch(config)# no mac address-table static mac_address vlan vlan-id

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 switch# configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.

Step 2 switch(config) # mac address-table static mac_address Specifies a static address to add to the MAC address table.
vlan vlan-id {drop | interface {type slot/port} |
port-channel number}
Step 3 (Optional) switch(config)# no mac address-table static Deletes the static entry from the MAC address table.
mac_address vlan vlan-id
Use the mac address-table static command to assign a
static MAC address to a virtual interface.

Example
This example shows how to put a static entry in the MAC address table:
switch# configure terminal
switch(config) # mac address-table static 12ab.47dd.ff89 vlan 3 interface ethernet 1/4
switch(config) #

Disabling MAC Address Learning on Layer 2 Interfaces

You can now disable and re-enable MAC address learning on Layer 2 interfaces.

SUMMARY STEPS
1. switch# configure terminal
2. switch(config)# interface type slot/port
3. switch(config-if)# [no] switchport mac-learn disable
4. switch(config-if)# clear mac address-table dynamic interface type slot/port

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 switch# configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.

Step 2 switch(config)# interface type slot/port Enters the interface configuration mode for the specified
interface.

Step 3 switch(config-if)# [no] switchport mac-learn disable Disables MAC address learning on Layer 2 interfaces.

Configuring MAC Address Tables

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 Configuring MAC Address Tables
Configuring the Aging Time for the MAC Table

Command or Action Purpose

The no form of this command re-enables MAC address
learning on Layer 2 interfaces.
Note In Warp mode, the Cisco Nexus 3500 switch
does not flood Layer 3 traffic to the VLAN in
which the port configured using switchport
mac-learn disable is present, and the traffic is
dropped. In Normal mode, the switch should
flood the Layer 3 traffic to this VLAN.

Step 4 switch(config-if)# clear mac address-table dynamic Clears the MAC address table for the specified interface.
interface type slot/port
Important After disabling MAC address learning on an
interface, ensure that you clear the MAC address
table.

Example
This example shows how to disable MAC address learning on Layer 2 interfaces:
switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# interface ethernet 1/4
switch(config-if)# switchport mac-learn disable
switch(config-if)# clear mac address-table dynamic interface ethernet 1/4

This example shows how to re-enable MAC address learning on Layer 2 interfaces:
switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# interface ethernet 1/4
switch(config-if)# no switchport mac-learn disable

Configuring the Aging Time for the MAC Table

You can configure the amount of time that an entry (the packet source MAC address and port that packet
ingresses) remain in the MAC table. MAC aging time can be configured in either interface configuration mode
or in VLAN configuration mode.

Note The Cisco Nexus device does not support per-VLAN CAM aging timers.

SUMMARY STEPS
1. switch# configure terminal
2. switch(config)# mac-address-table aging-time seconds

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 switch# configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.

Configuring MAC Address Tables

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 Configuring MAC Address Tables
Clearing Dynamic Addresses from the MAC Table

Command or Action Purpose

Step 2 switch(config)# mac-address-table aging-time seconds Specifies the time before an entry ages out and is discarded
from the MAC address table.
The seconds range is from 0 to 1000000. The default is
1800 seconds. Entering the value 0 disables the MAC aging.

Example
This example shows how to set the aging time for entries in the MAC address table to 1800 seconds
(30 minutes):
switch# configure terminal
switch(config) # mac-address-table aging-time 1800
switch(config) #

Clearing Dynamic Addresses from the MAC Table

You can clear all dynamic entries in the MAC address table.

Command Purpose

switch(config)# clear mac-address-table dynamic {address Clears the dynamic address entries from the
mac-addr} {interface [type slot/port | port-channel number} MAC address table.
{vlan vlan-id}

This example shows how to clear the dynamic entries in the MAC address table:
switch# clear mac-address-table dynamic

Configuring MAC Move Loop Detection

When the number of MAC address moves between two ports exceeds a threshold, it forms a loop. You can
configure the action of bringing down the port with the lower interface index when such a loop is detected
by using the mac address-table loop-detect port-down command. To revert to the default action of disabling
MAC learning, use the no form of this command.

SUMMARY STEPS
1. switch# configure terminal
2. switch(config)# [no] mac address-table loop-detect port-down
3. switch(config)# mac address-table loop-detect port-down edge-port

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 switch# configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.

Configuring MAC Address Tables

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 Configuring MAC Address Tables
Verifying the MAC Address Configuration

Command or Action Purpose

Step 2 switch(config)# [no] mac address-table loop-detect Specifies the port-down action for MAC move loop
port-down detection. The no form of this command reverts to the
default action of disabling MAC learning for 180 seconds.

Step 3 switch(config)# mac address-table loop-detect port-down Enables the err-disabled detection for the edge-port on the
edge-port MAC move loop detection.

Example
This example shows how to configure port-down as the action for MAC move loop detection.
switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# mac address-table loop-detect port-down

This example shows how to enable the err-disabled detection for the edge-port on the MAC move
loop detection.
switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# mac address-table loop-detect port-down edge-port

Verifying the MAC Address Configuration

Note On Cisco Nexus 3000 and Cisco Nexus 3548 Series platforms, the self router MAC or HSRP VMAC are
dynamically learned by the switch under the following conditions:
• When there is a transient loop in the network due to which the switch receives its own packets.
• When there are spoofed packets where the source MAC is same as the Router MAC or HSRP MAC.

This behavior is different from other Cisco Nexus platforms. However, there is no operational impact due to
these self MAC entries that are present in the MAC table. Any packet that is destined to the router MAC or
HSRP MAC is routed. There is no Layer 2 lookup on these packets.

Use one of the following commands to verify the configuration:

Table 1: MAC Address Configuration Verification Commands

Command Purpose

show mac address-table aging-time Displays the MAC address aging time for all VLANs defined in the
switch.

show mac address-table Displays the contents of the MAC address table.
Note IGMP snooping learned MAC addresses are not displayed.

show mac address-table loop-detect Displays the currently configured action.

Configuring MAC Address Tables

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 Configuring MAC Address Tables
Verifying the MAC Address Configuration

This example shows how to display the MAC address table:

switch# show mac address-table
VLAN MAC Address Type Age Port
---------+-----------------+-------+---------+------------------------------
1 0018.b967.3cd0 dynamic 10 Eth1/3
1 001c.b05a.5380 dynamic 200 Eth1/3
Total MAC Addresses: 2

This example shows how to display the current aging time:

switch# show mac address-table aging-time
Vlan Aging Time
----- ----------
1 300
13 300
42 300

This example shows how to display the currently configured action:

switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# show mac address-table loop-detect
Port Down Action Mac Loop Detect : enabled

switch# configure terminal

switch(config)# no mac address-table loop-detect port-down
switch(config)# show mac address-table loop-detect
Port Down Action Mac Loop Detect : disabled

Configuring MAC Address Tables

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